Fit is Freedom.

In the never-ending search for the ultimate freedom, it becomes apparent that the freedom of the soul, mind and body are quite different and thus require unique mechanisms for attaining. Or are they? It occurred to me recently on a run in the lower mountains in Colorado that I felt more free and uninhibited with tennis shoes and a vague idea of where I was than with my possessions in my car en route to another destination. It is rather an intriguing feeling; the idea that the most free I have ever felt involves only logistical restraints, such as figuring out how to get home and whether I would have the energy, than the prospect of a new life, albeit tied down by physical obligations like my car and housing. This led me to wonder, what is freedom to me and how do I pursue it?

It was at that point I realized that my ultimate freedom was the result of my actions at the moment: running without regard to location, possession or time. Through the perpetual motion, the incessant beating and breathing, nothing was still, nothing was stagnant. And while my pursuit of freedom was the motivator, my body was the enabler. Without the strengths and weaknesses combined and the continual testing of those limits, I would never have experienced such a moment; a moment that makes life worth living.

Besides the purely philosophical, there are other more practical reasons for the proposition that physical fitness allows for freedom. The following are merely examples of the multitude of possible manifestations of fit freedom.

• If you have people who love you and are concerned for your well being and wait on edge by the door until you return from your adventures, being able to extend those adventures by, say, a few miles, can prove to be quite liberating during as well as amusing upon returning.
• You can eat what you want and not have to starve yourself to be a skinny bitch.
• You can live longer, but if that’s not your goal you can die gloriously doing whatever crazy shit being fit allows you to do. Like climbing Mount Everest. Or like getting hit by a car while street running. Or lightning when you get caught in storms.
• You can run across the street to beat the light or make it to your favorite restaurant before it closes without getting a stitch in your side.
• If, by chance, you are at a party and the cops just happen to show up, you can hop fences and avoid the inconvenience of questioning and/or potential arrest (all depending on the kind of party you are attending, of course).
• It is always great sport to try and outrun a rainstorm. It is advised, however, to not bring your ipod along.
• If you’re having a bad day and the last thing you need is a mugger to make off with your purse, being fit will allow you to knee the bastard in the balls and take off in your Prada heels.* The mugger will probably be more fascinated with the fact that you can and are willing to run in heels than in your purse at that point.

*Note: No Prada shoes were hurt in the testing of this theory.

Run it out.

Of all the many ways to escapes life’s difficulties, there are few that have positive repercussions outside of the initial forgetting of the self. It seems that all other methods of coping (drinking, binging, drugging) involve a generally negative result, that is, people remember drunken escapades, binges lead to weight gain if you’re lucky coronaries if you’re not, and accidentally hooking your brain on a character-altering concoction. Despite the unfortunate fact that a majority of people turn to these ways of losing life’s problems for the moment, and eventually themselves, some others choose a strange form of self-mutilation: exercise. The ceaseless sweat beads on the brow, the burning pain in the limbs, the gasping for breath and the aches that make you feel a million years old not only make your brain scream “Stop! For Christ's sake, stop!” but also cause others to wonder why you do it. You do it because in those moments when your brain is consumed with messages from your body, it’s no longer preoccupied from messages from itself. In a way it’s a trade-off, physical pain for the absence of mental or emotional, that only you can decide for yourself. Is it worth it? Even if you decide it isn’t, the least you end up getting out of all the hassle is a good night’s sleep, and there’s always something to be said for a bit of time in an alternate reality of dreams, right?

Aphorisms from the asphalt.

Some say the big birthdays are 16, 18 and 21 but in my life none have had as profound an impact as my 20th. 16 passed without much notice, the car keys became routine and sometimes even a hassle. 18 was uneventful; I didn’t have much interest in cigarettes and porn up here in the healthy, conservative state of Colorado. But 20, see 20 was different. It wasn’t the first birthday I didn’t celebrate, but it was the first I didn’t get anything I wanted. My list of birthday presents included the following:

• A lecture, or intervention if you will, from my parents telling me I’m too young to make huge commitments and that I needed to take some time away from my then boyfriend.
• An entire day of brand new classes at the start of a new term.
• And the cold hard fact that I was no longer a carefree teenager and that life, whether I liked it or not, was going to come bite me in the ass.

As unimpressive as those events sound, they have proven to be the three most valuable gifts I have ever received. The lecture, despite the initial shock and outburst of tears, has led me to open so many doors that I wouldn’t have bothered going out of my way for previously and I have met so many amazing people as a result. The classes turned out to be an invaluable lesson that no matter what a day means to you, or anyone else for that matter, the world doesn’t care; life goes on. And the third, well that took a while to hit me, but now that it has I must wonder, how in hell did I get here and wtf have I actually learned?

It all started when I was 14 and I decided to tie on a pair of sneakers, go to the local rec center and run around the track. Why? Because my mother was yelling at me for being a theater geek and because my brother was an awesome soccer star and I wanted to prove I wasn’t a loser. I ran once around the track and had to walk the next round. I was about to give up but I liked the feeling of moving so fast that I decided to keep at it. Little did I know this was to lead to 6 years of worn out tennis shoes, blisters, cramps, sunburns and aching so bad stairs hurt like a mother-fucker, which leads me to the first of a few things I’ve figured out while my feet pound the asphalt.

1. Do things you dislike. You may end up liking them and even if you don’t you’ll have more willpower to do other things.

2. Don’t compromise for others, you’ll compromise yourself and vice versa. (I’m not saying be mean, just don’t change yourself for someone else).

3. Don’t settle for anything, whether it’s a grade, a job, or a significant other, you’ll end up unsatisfied wishing you hadn’t just settled.

4. Any trip up in the road is another excuse to rise to the occasion and do even better next time.

5. Don’t live your life thinking someone will make you happy; they will also have to power to make you miserable.

6. If you have ever done anything you think you might regret, ask yourself, did it make you smile? If the answer is yes, there is nothing to regret.

7. (I know this next one is cliché but it’s true). Go for your dream. Apply for that job you’ve always wanted, who knows you might be pleasantly surprised. If it doesn’t exist, create it for yourself.

8. Once you get to the top, the only way you can go is down. So never accept you’ve reached the top, just keep climbing.

9. No matter what kind of pain you’re feeling someone else’s at this moment is greater.

10. Stop for beauty. See that gorgeous sunset? Stunning clouds? Pause and enjoy it, you never know when you’ll see something like that again.

11. Don’t blame others for your failures; you wouldn’t blame them for your successes.

12. Don’t quit. The more you give up, the more often you want to give up. It’s a vicious cycle.

13. Think of yourself as a block of beautiful old wood. Every time you consider “starting over” or changing yourself, don’t paint over that wood with a solid color, it will fade and peel. Instead, give yourself a new coat of varnish; it will brighten the wood, bring out its individual grains and prevent warping when tough times come around.

14. And a last one just for fun (and because 13 is unlucky). If you can smell your own cologne/perfume, you’re wearing too much.